Students at the Russian State University for the Humanities are fighting against the decision to name a political school after Ivan Ilyin, a philosopher whose fascist ideas Putin admires. We tell you why they do this and how the university reacts. They are called “Ukrainian agents”

On April 11, the community “RGGU against Ilyin’s school” appeared on VK. This began a campaign against the decision of the university leadership to name the Higher Political School of the Russian State University for the Humanities after the philosopher Ivan Ilyin, who is considered one of the supporters of fascism and the ideological inspirer of Putin.

During the five days of the campaign, students of the Russian State Humanitarian University collected more than 12,500 signatures on a petition against the Ilyin High School and organized a street action - they put up posters near the university building. The students’ action received publicity in many media outlets and met with both support (even among deputies) and criticism: in particular, it was condemned by the rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Alexander Bezborodov, and the school’s director, Alexander Dugin.

"Groza" collected everything that is known about the action and spoke with representatives of the initiative group.

Why did the students decide to protest?

“We are convinced that Ilyin’s philosophizing has little in common with the values ​​of progressive humanity, just like the fascist idea, which is an unnatural political construct,” RSUH students wrote in their statement.

Who is Ivan Ilyin and what are his ideas?

Ilyin is an emigrant philosopher, a critic of communist power in Russia and an adherent of the principle of intransigence in the fight against communism. In 1933, Ilyin supported the rise to power in Germany of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), worked at the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin and collaborated with the National Socialists. In addition, the media call Ilyin Putin’s favorite philosopher: the president has repeatedly quoted him.

For example, Putin quoted Ilyin at a meeting with participants of the All-Russian youth environmental forum “Ecosystem. Reserved region":

“And there is such an expression... the one who told me about this, I promised that somehow I would definitely reproduce it out loud: “You have to live for what you can die for.” Strange as it may seem, your field of activity is humanitarian, humanistic, but this is something worth living for, an extremely important and very interesting area of ​​work, so, of course, I will support everything you do in every possible way,” Putin said.

The decision to name the High School after Ivan Ilyin was made at the university in the summer of 2023, but, according to RSUH students, “after public reaction,” posts and publications about this were removed from the university’s official sources.

“Then [in 2023] there was a feeling that the administration, having made an ambiguous post about naming the High School after Ivan Ilyin and receiving a backlash from the students, decided to hush up this story,” representatives of the initiative group told The Thunderstorm. “The HPS itself did not function, but only existed on paper.”

According to Groza’s interlocutors, then a version appeared among some students that the initiative for such a name was launched by the leadership of the Russian State University for the Humanities “for the sake of a tick”: “Thus, the university, by putting the name of its favorite philosopher Vladimir Putin, will beat off its “politically loyal KPI” to the higher management.”

In addition to the online initiative, a group of students organized a street action and posted posters with their position along the street near the Russian State University for the Humanities.

During the posting of leaflets, as the campaign participants said, passing students “received the initiative warmly”: “Someone shook our hands, expressed gratitude, someone closely studied our leaflet.”

In addition to the petition on Change.org, students created an appeal on the Russian Public Initiative website, an official public portal where citizens can send proposals for the social and economic development of the country. If the initiative passes the examination, it will become available for voting on the ROI website and if it receives the required number of votes in a year, it will be sent for consideration to an expert working group under the government.

Why the university started talking about the Higher Political School again

A new twist in the history of the Higher School of Political Sciences was the appointment of Alexander Dugin as its director: according to the students of the Russian State University for the Humanities, this “put an end to the question of what the new Higher Political School will be like.”

“There was no need [to start a campaign] until it became clear that the educational and scientific center would still conduct its activities not only on paper,” representatives of “RGGU against Ilyin’s school” explained to The Thunderstorm.

Dugin’s new position was first mentioned in the materials of the Russian State University for the Humanities website back in early January 2024, but the media paid attention to it only on April 10. According to the rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Alexander Bezborodov, it was Dugin who gave the name to the center.

Briefly about who Dugin is

Alexander Dugin is a professor, doctor of sociological and political sciences and one of the most prominent ideologists of the “Russian world”. Since the early 2000s, he has been defending the idea of ​​​​creating a Eurasian Union, which should include all the countries of the former USSR, and one of his main theories is built around the confrontation between Russia and the “collective West.” Now he is called one of the Kremlin’s main advisers on the anti-Western campaign.

From 2009 to 2014, Dugin served as head of the Department of Sociology of International Relations of the Faculty of Sociology at Moscow State University. On May 6, 2014, Dugin gave an interview to the ANNA-News agency in which he called for “kill, kill, kill” those who commit “atrocities in Ukraine.” Now the video from Dugin’s interview with ANNA-News has been deleted .

After this, a collection of signatures began for an appeal to the rector of Moscow State University, Viktor Sadovnichy, demanding that Dugin be dismissed from Moscow State University, which ultimately happened. According to Dugin, Moscow State University rector Viktor Sadovnichy admitted that the philosopher was fired due to “the reaction of certain circles” to Dugin’s position on the events in southeastern Ukraine.

“The student community is very wary regarding the ideological right-wing radical views of Alexander Dugin. We, students and graduates of the Russian State University for the Humanities, are not ready to bear moral responsibility for his right-wing radical political statements, which often border on violation of the criminal code and simple moral and ethical standards,” representatives of the initiative group of the Russian State University for the Humanities shared with Groza.

University response to student campaign

On April 13, Alexander Dugin, as the head of the HPS, drew attention to the students’ campaign in his Telegram channel. He connects the protest against the Ilyin school with “Western networks.”

“It is obvious that at the center of this operation are the same forces that wanted to kill me and killed Dasha . Nothing changes. The Russian Idea is what they all fear most. And Russian Victory,” a pro-government philosopher commented on the students’ protest.

What are we talking about?

Alexander Dugin's daughter Daria was killed in August 2022 in her car by an explosion. According to The Washington Post, the murder was organized by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Since the tragedy itself, Dugin has called it “a terrorist attack carried out by the Ukrainian regime.”

In his post, Dugin also pointed out the need to track whether “ a sixth column will support this network attack,” and expressed the opinion that “the operation pursues the goal of splitting our society along the conservative-socialist principle.”

The term “sixth column”, by analogy with the “fifth column”, was introduced by Alexander Dugin himself. He calls it those who, in his opinion, “cannot be accurately qualified in our political science dictionary: its representatives are for Putin and for Russia, but at the same time for a liberal, pro-Western, modernized and westernized Russia.”

“And we will rename not our School, but its rabid opponents. And we’ll rename it in such a way that it won’t seem too little,” Dugin said .

“It's a pretty predictable reaction. In the paradigm of Alexander Dugin’s views, it is much easier to believe that this initiative is the “tricks” of agents of the West, TsIPsO [Center for Information and Psychological Operations of Ukraine], anyone, but not a really existing student association,” commented representatives of “RGGU against the Ilyin School.”

Among the participants are activists of the Leninist Communist Youth League, the Organization of Communist Internationalists and the Left Front social movement. According to representatives of the initiative group, they are supported by both “caring students” and organizations with pro-communist views.

Students act anonymously to make it more difficult for university management to understand who to sanction. They are also concerned about their safety: “There are people who perceive our activities extremely aggressively.”

The version about “Ukrainian agents” is also supported by the rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Alexander Bezborodov, as he spoke about in a conversation with Gazeta.ru:

“There are some Ukrainian agents working in the country. So what, should the center be closed, as the Ukrainian agents say? The students have nothing to do with this, they work normally for us, and now very serious activities will be launched with the vice-rector’s office. Moreover, this is not what we expected; any reaction can be expected from Ukrainian agents. Received three signatures and closed the center? You know that 10 thousand can be done with one click. Are these signatures known and confirmed? No, and cannot be confirmed.”

On April 16, the community “RGGU against the Ilyin School” reported that three students were called “on the carpet” for distributing leaflets, where they tried to explain to them that they were “agents of the West.” In a conversation with a Kommersant journalist, the rector of the university, Alexander Bezborodov, confirmed this information and said that the educational measures were related to a violation of the university rules: “Internal regulations prohibit hanging notices on poles.”

Lawyers from the Molniya human rights project explain that a clause about leaflets can actually be included in a university’s internal regulations:

“Yes, the administration can prescribe such a ban. In the Russian State University for the Humanities this is indicated in paragraph 3. 2 paragraphs. 22 Internal Regulations .

Since violation of this rule is not a serious offense, the university does not have the right to impose strict disciplinary measures, including expulsion. However, we advise students to be careful, as repeated violations may result in severe consequences from the university.

We are monitoring the situation, if students or the initiative group of the Russian State University for the Humanities need help in appealing the actions of the administration, write to us on the hotline .”

Rector Bezborodov also said that supporters of the Komsomol of the Russian Federation have already approached him: “The communists are now besieging me, this is their planned communist action. I’m not sure I need to take an active part in it.” However, in the near future, according to rector, the administration is planning a meeting with students: “They can ask all the questions that interest them and discuss about Ilyin, and about Dugin, and about Ivanov, and about Petrov, and about Lenin and Stalin together.”

Who supported and condemned “RGGU against Ilyin’s school”

Several State Duma deputies expressed support for the students. Among them is a deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Denis Parfenov, who sent a letter to the rector of the Russian State University for the Humanities with arguments against the decision to name the school after Ilyin.

“The ridiculous and already comical-looking hurdy-gurdy began to play again about the fact that Ilyin’s opponents were paid by foreign intelligence services and are agents of the TsIPSO. Of course, such statements, both about the composition of the initiative group and about the “stronghold of patriotism” in the person of Ivan Ilyin, turn out to be simply convenient and very harmful sophistry, created to justify a rather vile ideological line,” Parfenov wrote in his Telegram channel.

“RGGU against Ilyin” also talked about support from Doctor of Historical Sciences and politician Nikolai Platoshkin and film blogger Evgeniy Bazhenov (Badcomedian): in his post, Badcomedian sarcastically ridicules the point of view that the student action is the work of “Ukrainian fascists.”

Several pro-government bloggers and publicists expressed their opinions on the decision to name the school after Ilyin at the request of the Mash Rooms telegram channel: their opinions differed. Stas “How Simple” stated his readiness to go to a rally against naming the school after Ilyin: “Ilyin was a traitor, no matter how the President of the Russian Federation treated him <...> In Ukraine it started in much the same way: there they studied all sorts of Dmitro Dontsovs, Stepanov Bandera, Evgenov Konovaltsev and other fascist henchmen.” His position was joined by historian and video blogger Klim Zhukov, who called Ilyin’s figure “odious.” Blogger Dmitry “Goblin” Puchkov, who previously supported the students’ initiative on his social networks, also stated that “he has a negative attitude towards fascists and fans of fascists.”

Deputy Vitaly Milonov considered himself an opponent of the action at the Russian State University for the Humanities: “It seemed to me that after the recognition of the international LGBT movement as extremist, there would be no questions about such initiatives as the attempt to abolish the great Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin. However, apparently, the LGBT rudiments of leftist scam still remain in our society in the not the best part of the student body, who, in order to disguise failures in their studies and the rather flat thinking of the limited cerebellum of a Marxist-Trotskyist, are trying to take revenge on Russian philosophical thought.” Ilyin is also called the “Great Russian Philosopher” by publicist and Russia Today columnist Yegor Kholmogorov.

MASH Rooms also published a statement from Neurozhirinovsky, saying that “leftists will always be against the religious philosopher Ivan Ilyin.” “Of course, terrorists and bloody executioners are much more familiar and understandable to them,” says the neural network.

Now the initiative group is preparing requests for deputies of the State Duma.

What does the initiative group plan to do next?

In a conversation with Groza, the initiators of the petition said that the situation with naming the school after Ilyin became a point of contact for many students who were worried about certain things at the university. They will continue to develop not only short-term plans for the current campaign, but also more comprehensive proposals to improve student life.

“We sincerely hope that our opinion will be listened to, because we are not looking for opposition between the administration and students. We believe that such initiatives should be widely discussed among students. Our minimum plan is an order to cancel the naming of Ivan Ilyin and to conduct a clean, transparent vote for candidates from among those philosophers whom the students themselves propose.”

Students also announced the creation of an inter-university solidarity group and called on universities that are ready to support their initiative against naming the Higher Political School after Ivan Ilyin to join it. According to Kommersant, graduate students and students of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University already intend to join the initiative.

When asked in the group comments what the chances of success are, students answer :

“Our answer: everything will definitely work out. We have living people with us: a group of university students, media opinion leaders, the scientific community, public figures and deputies of the municipal, city and federal levels. During the four days of the campaign, we collected more than six thousand signatures, and the rector of the university managed to change his position from “these are all Ukrainian provocateurs” to “we are ready to talk with students.” <...> The university must remain an abode of knowledge and creativity, free from political conjuncture and propaganda.”